Vespula germanica
Pest description and crop damage German yellow jacket is an extremely rare hitchhiking pest and restricted in a number of export destinations. Adults have yellow and black marks with a spade shape on the 1st abdominal segment and black spots down the sides of the 2nd to 5th segments. Easily confused with common yellow jacket.
Management-cultural control
Shaking prior to loading will remove some yellow jackets.
During harvest, close doors on trailers when not loading and place netting over stacks of trees in loading sites.
Management-chemical control
Spot treating nests with aerosol sprays and trapping with heptyl-butyrate traps early (March) will help control yellow jackets.